A Different Family
by nemoshewolf
Summary: Written for WolfAndElfLover. A variant of my story 'A Prisoner to Mutant Turtles' in which April is taken in by the turtles when they are kids and have Splinter as a father.


**I received a request from WolfAndElfLover asking for a story like this, and while I'm not in a position to write another multi-chapter fic, I was able to put this together. Hopefully you'll be satisfied with this, WolfAndElfLover. Sorry it took so long; I'd have e-mailed you, but your e-mail address didn't show up in the review.**

**I do not own TMNT.**

* * *

April opened the door of her apartment building as quietly as she could. The sound of the TV on to a football game and loud snores were a welcome greeting to her ears. Her foster father, Eric, was asleep. Creeping in as softly as she could manage, April slunk through the living room to the kitchen, where she left the bottle of just purchased aspirin on the counter in easy view of all who used the area. Slinking toward the bedroom, the seven year old noted the number of beer bottles cluttering the floor around Erics' sagging armchair. He would be unlikely to wake before noon tomorrow.

Rachel and Olivia were sitting on the floor of the room the three of them shared, drawing on the secondhand coloring book Baby, Erics' wife, had given them. Without being asked, the two shifted so that April had space to join them.

"Did you get Babys' aspirin?" asked Rachel.

"Yep. Is she back from work yet?"

"No. Probably an all nighter again."

"He looks really out of it tonight," said April as she grabbed a yellow crayon. "I think we'll have the night to ourselves." For a while, the girls just sat together and colored, enjoying the opportunity to be the children they were. After a time, April noticed the drawling Olivia was making. It was of a large, light green turtle that walked upright on two legs. An orange bandanna was wrapped around his head with two holes for his bright blue eyes to show through.

"What's that?" asked April curiously.

"The turtle that I saw in the window," replied the five year old.

Rachel snorted. "That again? Really Olivia, there are no such things as giant turtles." At the lofty age of nine and a half, Rachel had decided she was far too old for any kind of fantasy.

"When did you see a giant turtle in the window?" asked April.

"Last night. I couldn't sleep and I looked over at the window. He was there, looking in at us."

"There was no giant turtle at our window. It was just your imagination," said Rachel.

"There was too! I saw him!" Both April and Rachel shushed Olivia; her voice was rising dangerously high. "I saw him," she mumbled quietly once more. April and Rachel shared a glance, at which April shrugged her shoulders.

* * *

April thought nothing more of the turtle for the next three days. Life proceeded normally in the household of Eric and Baby Hinsdale, until a pair of social workers showed up for a surprise inspection.

April, Rachel and Olivia were eating a late lunch of sugary breakfast cereal in front of the TV when the doorbell rang. Baby, who was making an attempt to level the mountain of dirty dishes in the sink for the first time in over a week, hurried over to the door to answer it.

"Mrs. Barbara Hinsdale?" inquired a voice.

"Yes?" replied Baby.

"I'm Julietta Lee and this is my partner Kelsey Walsh. We're with child services and are here for a surprise inspection of the premises."

"Surprise inspection?!" sputtered Baby. "B-but you-you can't-"

"We can," replied a second voice who must have been Kelsey Walsh. A moment later, both women were inside. The three girls stared curiously as they took in the dirty rug covering the floor, the mess of dishes in the kitchen and the two dozen or so empty beer bottles scattered about Erics' sagging armchair. Before an inspection Baby would work tirelessly to vacuum, dust, wash and ensure there were no traces of her husbands' alcoholic indulgences anywhere within the home. But today, the curtain was down and the apartments' true colors were on full dirty display.

Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Walsh took in the scene quietly.

"Is your husband home?" inquired Mrs. Lee.

"N-no, he is out at the moment," answered Baby shakily. The girls glanced at each other. Eric was in his and Babys' bedroom, sleeping off the contents of many of the bottles lying on the carpet beside them.

Mrs. Walsh squatted in front of the girls. "What's for lunch there ladies?" she asked in an easygoing and friendly manner.

"Cinnamon Toast Crunch," said Olivia, spooning up another mouthful.

"How do you girls like living here?" Mrs. Walsh asked.

"S'alright, mos' a da time," Olivia answered around her mouthful of cereal.

"It's pretty good," replied Rachel with a shrug of her shoulders.

"It's much better than the other homes I've been to," said April quickly. She had a feeling of what was going on here and did not want it to happen. Baby and Eric were the first foster home she'd ever felt happy in. She knew Eric only tolerated them because the welfare check helped cover his drinking expenses, but Baby genuinely cared for them. She told them stories, sang songs to them, took them to the park and played all sorts of fun games with them when she wasn't working. For the first time since her parents died a year and a half ago, she felt truly loved. Sure, sometimes when Eric got drunk he would peek in their bedroom door and watch them sleep, but there was no harm in that, right? It was a bit creepy, but he wasn't hurting them.

"Girls, why don't you all go play in your room for a bit?" suggested Baby. April got to her feet with a sinking feeling in her gut and reluctantly filed from the living room with Olivia and Rachel.

An hour later, a car arrived for the girls. Baby, who'd clearly been crying, gave each of them a sorrow filled hug and goodbye.

Outside, April asked Mrs. Lee where they were going. "There's room for you three at Mrs. Huntingtons' home," she said. "You all will stay there for the time being."

Aprils' heart sank. The Huntington home. The place with more kids than her class at school. The house was big and well kept, but with all the children living there, it was kind of everyone for themselves. On top of that, Mrs. Huntington was a strict old lady who'd clashed numerous times with April.

"Come along April," said another social worker who'd arrived with the car. April looked into the confines of the vehicle. Rachel and Olivia were already inside and were waiting for her. But April had made up her mind.

"No," she said. "I'm sick of being carted around and dumped wherever!"

"April, honey, I understand your frustration, but-"

"No! You don't! None of you care like Baby did and now you've taken her away!"

"Come, April," commanded Mrs. Lee firmly, taking hold of Aprils' arm and pulling her to the car. But April let out a raucous scream and kicked out, catching the agent in the shin. The woman yelped and staggered back, and April took the opportunity to bolt.

"April O'Neil, come back here now!" yelled the driver. April ignored her, so she and Mrs. Walsh took off in pursuit. But April was fast and angry, so in no time at all she had lost them among the maze of streets and back alleys.

For the rest of the day, April wandered aimlessly. She knew she couldn't go back to Babys' apartment; those agents would be waiting for her. The setting sun found her at the little park Baby would take her, Rachel and Olivia to, rocking back and forth forlornly on the plastic rocking horse.

The temperature began to drop. It was October. The weather was in that stage where it was warm during the day, but got cold as soon as the sun went away. April crossed her bare arms and shivered.

Almost the minute after all traces of the sun had vanished, April heard the voice call out. "Hey, watcha doin' out here?" April swung around, but there was no one there. The park was dark and devoid of life.

"Who's there?" she asked uneasily.

"Me," said the voice. It was male, boisterous and sounded young, no older than herself. "And my brothers. They're here too." April heard what sounded like someone being smacked. "Ow!"

"She didn't need to know that, shell for brains," growled a deeper, rougher voice. April tried to determine from where the voices were coming from. Behind the trash cans in that alley, maybe?

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Aren't you cold?" came a third, more authoritative, male voice, ignoring her question.

"Yeah, a little."

"Why aren't you at home then?"

"Are you lost?" piped up the first voice suddenly. "'Cause your apartment's just a few blocks that-OOWW!"

"How do you know where I live?" asked April, suddenly very defensive. She got up off the rocking horse, ready to run.

"We live around here," said a fourth voice quickly. This one was higher pitched, but definitely male. "We live around here, and have seen you around a lot."

"So why aren't you at home?" came the authoritative voice again. Tears began to prickle at Aprils' eyes.

"Because I don't have a home anymore!" she shouted. "The stupid social workers came and took that away just because my stupid foster father couldn't keep from drinking and now I have to go live with 30 other kids!"

"Dang, that's really too bad," said the high pitched voice sympathetically. "Why don't you come home with us? It's warm, and we have lots of food."

April wiped her eyes and looked over at the trash cans – she was pretty sure by now that the voices were coming from there – warily.

"Go home with you? I don't even know who you are," she said.

There was silence. Then: "a very valid point. Why don't you come over here so we can show you?"

"Why don't _you_ come over _here?_" challenged April.

More silence. "We have candy," called the rough voice. "If you come over here, we'll give you some." _ SMACK._

"We really don't like open spaces," said the high pitched voice. "We're deathly afraid of them, in fact. Could you _please_ come to us?"

April sighed. Her better judgment told her to just walk away, but she _was_ getting really cold. And hungry. But mostly cold. If these kids could give her a warm place to stay... "Alright." She walked over to the trash cans, giving up the distance that would've given her a good head start had they decided to attack her.

"Now who are all of..." April trailed off as some..._creature_...rose up from its hiding place behind the cans. The lighting was bad, but April could see right away that this was no human. It was tall, taller than her, with scaly skin and some kind of armor plating covering its front. A dark hump was visible over each shoulder. Chocolate brown eyes peered out at her through the eye holes in its bandanna. A beakish mouth opened in a hesitant smile that revealed sharp teeth with a gap in the middle top ones. The thing stepped forward, and all at once April knew exactly what the creature was: a giant turtle.

"Oh," said April weakly. Three more turtles rose from the shadows and stepped toward her. Two were about her height, one was slightly smaller. All four appeared to be her age.

"Hey there," said the chocolate eyed one gently. He was the one with the high pitched voice. Now that he was closer, she could see the bandanna he wore was purple. "We're not gonna hurt you."

April struggled to make sense of what she was seeing. "You-you're a-a,"

"A giant humanoid talking turtle?" he supplied.

April screamed. And turned. And would have taken off running, had the biggest turtle not tackled her. But he did, slapping a giant, three fingered hand across her mouth as he did so.

April thrashed in terror, but the turtle holding her was strong. "Hey, you're okay," soothed the brown eyed turtle. "We're not going to hurt you." He rubbed her shoulder gently until she stopped thrashing.

"Raph will remove his hand if you promise not to scream," said the authoritative turtle. "Nod your head if you agree not to scream." April nodded. 'Raph' pulled his hand away, put kept her pinned to the ground.

"Please don't eat me," whimpered April. "Please, please don't eat me."

"We're not going to eat you, April," said the authoritative-voiced one. He had dark blue eyes and his bandanna was blue. The girl went rigid.

"How do you know my name?" she asked.

"Like we said, we've seen you around," he replied. "My name's Leo, by the way. These are my brothers, Raph, Donnie and Mikey."

"Hello!" exclaimed Mikey, his light blue eyes positively glowing with delight behind his orange mask. He extended a hand for her to shake. A sharp little claw protruded from the tip of each finger. "It's great to finally meet you!"

As April gazed at Mikey, a puzzle piece seemed to click into place in her brain. The light green turtle with the orange bandanna Olivia had been drawling... This turtle had been looking in her window! THEY'D BEEN STALKING HER!

"Told ya this wasn't gonna go well," grunted Raph, tightening his grip on the writhing human.

Leo reached out a hand and patted Aprils' head soothingly. "It's okay, we don't want to hurt you. We want to _help_ you." April, who was unable to speak again, thanks to Raph, whimpered questioningly.

"We've seen you around, and we know you don't have a family, so we decided to let you join ours," said Donnie. "We're really cool people, once you get used to the skin and shells."

"I don't _need_ a new family," spat April, once Raph removed his hand again.

"Really?" inquired Leo. "Because you just told us that you no longer have a home. Where else would you go?" April gave no rejoinder to that.

* * *

_Why am I doing this? _April thought to herself. The sewers were dark, and Donnies' reassuring hand encasing her own was the only thing keeping her from bolting back the way they'd come.

"You're gonna love our home!" Mikey was saying. April couldn't see him too well, but from the sound of his voice, he was flitting around the group like a giant reptilian hummingbird. "We have a big screen TV, the largest movie collection known to turtlekind, a gourmet kitchen, state of the art dojo and this awesome tire swing over the pool!"

"Are you sure your dad is going to be okay with this?" asked April.

"Oh yeah, Sensei will love you," replied Donnie.

"He said we could get a pet anyway," said Mikey. Leo and Raph reached out and smacked him in the head.

"She is not a pet dimwit!" growled Raph.

"She is our guest," said Leo, his tone leaving no room for argument.

After another minute or so of walking, they came to what appeared to be an abandoned subway station. Mikey flipped himself over a row of turnstiles and threw his arms up in a grand flourish. "Voilà, welcome to the Turtle Lair, April!"

April didn't know what to say. The expanse was large and open, with a pile of beanbag chairs in front of a large TV in one corner and an assortment of arcade games in another. There was indeed a deep pool of water over by one wall with a drainage tunnel and a tire swing hanging over it. A punching bag had been set up in another corner and there were several tunnels leading deeper into the home.

"Wow, it's certainly...wow," said April.

"See?" said Donnie, beaming. April hesitantly stepped through the turnstiles and followed him farther into the Lair.

"My sons," came a sharp and sudden voice. All five children spun around to face the figure that had appeared out of one of the tunnels. April felt her knees go weak. "Why have you brought a human into our home?" asked the giant rat.

Leo stepped forward. "Well Sensei, this is April, the girl we were telling you about. The foster service people finally caught on to the fact that her home was unfit for her and the other girls living there-"

"There was nothing unfit about that place!" exclaimed April. "Baby loved and cared for us, that should have been enough."

Leo continued "-and came to take them to another home. April decided to run away than go to that other home. We found her in the park and said she could come stay with us."

"I see," said Splinter slowly. For several long moments, he studied April. Then he seemed to come to a decision. He walked over to where April stood beside Donnie. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss O'Neil."

"Hi," managed April with a little wave. "Nice to meet you too."

Splinter turned to his sons. "Well, shall we make our guest comfortable?"

"Hai, Sensei!" they exclaimed and scampered off to various areas of the Lair. April was left alone with Splinter. The rat stroked the fur growing off his chin in a long beard.

"I was not always a rat. Once I was human, and had a daughter. She would be about your age now," he told April. "But she died when she was a baby; along with my wife." April blinked, unsure of what to think about this new information. "Like you, I couldn't imagine a family without them. I bought four baby turtles as pets, and then we all experienced the event that turned us into the creatures you see now. But my sons did not replace my wife and daughter. Such as we will not replace your old family. No one will ever be able to do that. We'll be different. And you will be different to us too. My sons have never known a human. I believe it will be an experience for all of us. But we can try this, if you are willing to."

April blinked at him again. A different family... "Yeah, I guess I could try."

Splinter smiled at her lovingly. "Wonderful." He held out a paw. "Shall we find the boys?" April smiled and took the paw.


End file.
